MMOs and game design

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Are Bungie working on a new MMO?

Actual concept art, from the horse’s mouth

Big gaming news this week was that IGN got access to leaked materials about story details and concept art from Bungie, who confirmed that this document was an outside look at Destiny, which is their follow up to the Halo games. It sounds to be a full on Space Opera Star Wars-esque science/fantasy futuristic setting and the take out quote about the gameplay is that it is to be “social at its core.”

Go ahead. Take a peek. It’s alright. We weren’t quite ready, but we will be soon, and we can’t wait to finally show you what we’ve really been up to.

We do actually know a bit more about Destiny than the above links would imply. Polygon read through Bungie’s contract with Activision that was unsealed as part of the Activision/Infinity Ward lawsuit earlier this year. They described Destiny as a “sci-fantasy, action shooter” and list out a schedule for future releases and expansion packs.

The contract describes the Destiny franchise as a “massively-multiplayer-style,” detailing the genre as “client based mission structures with persistent elements.” The franchise plans to go beyond four games and four add-ons, comprising “a blend of retail packaged goods sales, subscriptions, downloadable content, value-added services and micro-transactions.”

While the latter sentence is a bit off putting, I doubt any game would sound attractive if you described it purely from a monetisation point of view. But they do include subscriptions as a planned payment option, and “massively-multiplayer-style” with “client based mission structures” sounds more CoD than full-on virtual world.

So how about it, Halo fans? Does a space-fantasy mission based massively multiplayer shmup appeal? Because Bungie might well be going there. Is Space Opera going to be the new hotness, now that Disney is making more Star Wars films?

It does also make me wonder how Blizzard will plan to position Titan, given that best conjectures I’ve seen on that have been based on some kind of science-fantasy MMO shooter.

I know I’ve gushed over it before, but have you tried Firefall? If you know mmo-terminology, you aren’t very far away from mastering this shooter (plus… fun!) For a almost non-shooter gamer like me, that game was/is very accessible

To be fair, shooters start to be less accessible by the time you’re thirty. A combination of age slowing your reflexes and making you easily confused by bright lights and loud sounds tends to put a dampener on things.

That said, Borderlands 2 is pretty much Diablo with guns. Give that a shot.

“client based mission structures with persistent elements” sounds rather like Guild Wars (1) or Diablo 3 to me. So not a “proper” virtual world type MMO but a game with persistent online characters and possibly a lobby type area so you can show off your epic shoulderpads.